Very disappointing evening, didn’t perform to our abilities however we have lost by the odd goal in 3 over 180 minutes of football against a team in a higher division. The squad at present is excellent but we are not going to beat every team put infront of us. They were better tonight, I’m gutted, £3k and Tamworth at home would have been great but 3 points on Saturday must not take priority.
I agree with all that has been said about the programme notes (I wasn’t actually there on Saturday after the match though so am an outsider really).
The point being Jim wants whats best for the club - we clearly do or we wouldnt give up every saturday etc. Lets have a return to form on Saturday and maintain the charge towards the title.
As for investment I trust you haven’t seen the accounts or the amount of money the fans have donated - there is more investment now than in the last 10 years and it is paying off that is very clear.
It was very disappointing watching witton tonight, the way they played was below their usual standard, we know that they are able to play better than that which made watching the match even more frustrating. Pity a few bad decisions were made which could have changed the circumstances of the game, had warlow’s goal been allowed on saturday we wouldn’t be in this sorry position now.
Anyway lets focus on the league now! Upto Blue Square North the Albion!!!
Its been a long time since i have seen a performance like last nights from a Witton team. I m not going to blame the referee for is bad performance. Because in truth we did play so badly.
What i didn`t like about the his performance was the lack of bookings.Hucknall should have had at least three players booked in the first half.
And all of those fouls were by Hucknalls number 10.
OK we got srewed by the ref Saturday, but last night we lost fair and square. Pritch had admitted it was a pen, and my dad was stood on the touchline by where Peers made a tackle, and he is convinced a red card was right. Although he says there is no way their player was hurt, and that was just play-acting.
Yes the program notes had a massive effect on the crowd, and yes Jim could of delivered the message in person - or at least saved until last night’s game was out of the way. However, Jim is a single-minded bloke - which is what makes him a good manager - and he will always carry out what he thinks is the best course of action. On this occasion i find it difficult to agree with him, but it’s gone now.
Hopefully the money we will miss out on with a decent trophy run will be recouped by Wayne Peach (and the rest of us…) helping bring money in from other avenues. If you’re worried about investment Billy, there are plenty of supporter activities you can join in with - have you seen Jim Powell for raffle tickets?
Let’s see a backlash on Saturday, and keep the title-charge going.
Wasn’t there last night but sounds as if we got what we deserved! Lets hope this is a minor blip, it shows how high our expectations our at the min as we expect to beat everyone, hopefully this actually helps us in the long run meaning less games and more focus on the league. It worked for Telford last year!!!
I haven’t seen Jim’s programme note’s so can’t really comment but from what I can gather it could of been delivered in a better way. Maybe Jim could have come on the tannoy before the game or in the club after the game but perhaps Jim felt that the programme was the only forum that would get his message across.
Why don’t the board and say a couple of representatives from the fans have a meeting and draw up a supporters ‘code of conduct’ outlining what is expected of you as an ambasador for Witton Albion Football Club. What is not acceptable and also what the consequences will be should you break these rules. For example anyone who incurs the club an FA fine through abusing a ref etc should have to pay the fine themselves and continual offenders should be banned for a season etc, etc.
This would at least let every suporter know where they stand and what is deemed as appropriate behaviour. It could be published in every home programme and be displayed at various points around the ground for example. Just a thought!
Really don’t want this to get out of hand. I’ve been saying for weeks that if your a fan of Witton Albion you have to conduct yourself in a way that impresses other fans of other clubs while ensuring that you fully get behind your team. I myself had some banter with Hucknall officials and directors and fans on Saturday which was good natured stuff. It was so good in fact that I was invited back to their ground anytime I was in the area to watch them. My parting shot to them before the game was the best of luck but I hope we win. To which they said and the same from us and I shook hands with about half a dozen of them.
Last night was a big dissapointment because we should have gone through on Saturday so we feel aggrieved and angry. One or two of their directors last night felt a little sorry for us but were obviously made up they’d got through and were celebrating.
If you look at the match we deserved nothing and we contrived to give them the game with an own goal and a pen. Felt sorry for Peersie because he was trying very hard to get the ball doing a job other people should have been doing and he got sent off when we know he is not a dirty player.
As regards Jim he’s the best thing thats happened to us since the championship winning team of the 1990’s. But remember Jim has fashioned this team with hardly any money and not bought a team from Colne. I think he’s right to express his views about fans behaviour and the only medium he has is program notes as a chat in the club after would only get a small audience. I don’t know what the criticism is but I do know that a very very small minority don’t exactly conduct themselves in a manner apropriate for our club. We were’nt exactly getting behind the team to try and lift them last night and I’m as guilty as everyone else on this.
Jim and Nige if you read this the vast majority of fans think you are doing a great job. we can’t win every game but the real test is how we can bounce back on Saturday and take all three points. We are right behind you and its up to us fans to back the team with sensible vocal support. The new Rod Thornley song is great even if it does mention Beckham’s bum. so lets have more of this type of wit which although a little risque is not obscene! Also can we have Kearney restored to the team his enthusiasm, strength, speed and better distribution was missing last night!!
As far as I’m concerned Jim is just showing is passion for the club and he’s entitled to his view the same as we are entitled to ours. I’d rather have a manager who is passionate and conducts himself as well as Jim rather than someone like some of his predecesors who condoned punch ups in tunnels and basically had a team that lacked discipline. I just want us all to pull together and channel all our passions into lifting the team on Saturday and getting them going again!! Lets put all this behind us unite together,look forward and try just that little bit harder to stop some of the more abusive stuff.As I say the vast majority of our fans are brilliant and if it comes down to several individuals then we need to address this with them but lets start with a clean slate for Saturday and go from there.
Almost every match thread on here someone critcises the fans. We’re too quiet or we’re too rowdy. The people who are getting criticised are the same people that pushed the race night, that attended Beaver, that support the coaches to away games. Do you appreciate how much money those on the coach contributed towards the Development Fund at the weekend?! Or on the Stocksbridge coach?! To turn around and openly criticise them - and i’m not just talking about Jim here - is a little unfair.
We took 100 - 120 to Hucknall. 3 or 4 people did 1 or 2 things that were less than perfect. Let’s be realistic here; there was no fighting. The ref cost us the game, did he get a torrent of abuse like we have seen in the past? No. Our team went a goal down, did we get on their backs. No. Was there any criminal damage? No. We supported OUR team from first to last. We didn’t perform, but we remained proud of them. That counts for alot - but no one ever seems to highlight that.
If you want us to take half a dozen perfectly behaved fans to away games, then i’m sure this can be arranged. I’m sure we can stand there in silence and not say anything that could be taken the wrong way. But that’s not football AT ANY LEVEL. You go to Old Trafford, you will hear alot worse than you’ll EVER hear at a Witton match. I wont condone anyone who does anything unacceptable, but there were no MAJOR incidents on Saturday.
Personally i am proud to be a Wittoner when we take that number away from home. Nothing happened on Saturday that can’t just be sorted with a quiet word to those involved. I didn’t see a single thing that made me ashamed to follow Witton. I am more ashamed when we start bickering amongst ourselves on here - it’s a very GREEN & WHITE thing to do. Would Hucknall have us all back?! When counting up the till receipts on Saturday night i am sure that they would do!
Let’s have some perspective - ALOT of us travelled to Hucknall. Some of us had a bad day at the office. Jim’s program notes run the danger of tarring us all with the same brush, that’s what caused an issue. I support Jim wholeheartedly, him and Nige have been great with the fans. But like i said earlier, i feel he knows most of us well enough to have a chat in the bar. He has some of our phone numbers, a call would suffice. Alot of us are guilty of getting over excited on Saturday - but that’s all it was. There was no malicious intent from anyone. If there was then i would be joining in with the criticism.
We need to pull together, not work against each other. Saturday is a big game, and one we need to win. Let’s focus on that, and stop having a pop at each other in public.
Hard luck to the boys last night…would notagree that we were an embarasment to the unibond league- big overreaction!! (lets not forget that we were playing a team from a higher league that play week in week out against fitter and better teams than we do)
We played well in patches and not so well in others but the penalty swung the match and until then we were well in with a shout…
Lets have a big win Saturday and as fans lets pull together and get behind Jim and the boys
from our perspective we think we played very well last night. Its got to be said though that but for a bizarre referee’s decision saturday there would have been no need for a replay. The fans i met in your car park after the game were very courteous and friendly. Good luck in your quest for the unibond prem title and hopefully we’ll be playing you again soon .
Cheers Bertie, I think you did a job last night and good luck to you. Your lads are big and strong and we could not cope with that.
Across the 2 games Mayman was the best player without a doubt. You can probably tell from our posts that we didn’t feel we played as well as we could but to your credit you looked the only winners last night. All the best in the next round.
It would be interesting to get your take on the behaviour of our fans on Saturday as this appears to be a hot topic of discussion.
Shame about the result last night. If Witton kept the ball on the deck and played more football then i’m certain that it could have been a diffrent story, you have some decent attacking players but, high long ball tactics didn’t do them any justice against a tall Hucknall side.
Despite the result i enjoyed the game, I’ll be back on Saturday for some more.
Did not go to Hucknall so cannot comment but last night we were beaten by a better and stronger team, something we will have to be if we get promotion.
Good points Robbo - fans are all different - some noisey - some quiet - and occasionally some get carried away with the occasion when fuelled by the odd drink or two - but thats what makes football. I can live with that, it has never been any different in the 55 years I have been watching, nor should it so as lomg as nobody gets hurt.
As regards Jim’s programmes notes - surely these kind of observations should come from the CHAIRMAN, he is the voice of the club. Apart from the first home match of the season I don’t remember seeing any chairmans comments in the programme.
Peersy was unlucky to be sent off - yes he was late into the tackle because he was stretching for the ball - but it was not malicious and the Hucknall player was not even hurt. His suspension could hit us badly.
